RAWA Hearing Now Rescheduled For March 26th

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Monday, March 16th, 2015 | Written by Stephen Smith

The congressional subcommittee to debate the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) was originally scheduled to take place on March 5th in Washington DC, until a snowstorm postponed the hearing. However, the hearing has now been rescheduled for Thursday, March 26th, when the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security will meet to discuss the controversial piece of legislation (HR 707) which seeks to outlaw all types of online gaming except horse racing, sports betting, and fantasy sports. News of the new date first broke via the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) twitter account, which simply stated the message:

“CONFIRMED:,RAWA hearing redo scheduled for 3/26. Get ready to #OpposeHR707 – jp”

Anniversary Of RAWA’s First Senate Introduction

Interestingly, March 26th corresponds with the one year anniversary of RAWA’s first introduction in the Senate by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), with Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) subsequently introducing his own version of the bill, S-2159, to the House a short time later. However, the bills eventually failed to garner any support and died in Congress at the end of 2014, only to be resurrected and reintroduced to the House of Representatives by Chaffetz (R-UT) at the beginning of February this year. Lindsey Graham is similarly expected to reintroduce his own S-2159 bill to the Senate within the next few months.

An Unpopular Piece Of Legislation

Despite having the support of billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson (photo) and his Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling (CSIG), the bill still remains extremely unpopular on Capitol Hill and according to analysts is very unlikely to fare any better than its predecessor. Up until now, for instance, HR 707 has drawn the support of just 14 co-sponsors (11 Republicans, 3 Democrats) out of the House of Representative’s 435 members.

This lack of enthusiasm on the part of politicians is hardly surprising, though, as there is little incentive for them to go against the decision made by federal prosecutors in 2011 to reinterpret the Wire Act (1961) to allow individual U.S. states to regulate and operate online gambling websites of their own without consulting Congress. After all, three US states of Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey have already invested millions of dollars developing online gambling industries of their own, which would suddenly have to be dismantled in the unlikely event of RAWA’s success.

A further reason for the bill’s unpopularity is that it also seeks to ban online state lotteries, with Senior Vice President of Las Vegas Sands Andy Abboud, stating that his boss Sheldon Adelson was “unlikely to accept exemptions for state lotteries and tribes in a bill to prohibit Internet gambling.” This approach alone is likely to cost RAWA any chance of success as more than a quarter of US states already offer lottery sales online, with more expected to come on board in 2015.

Adelson Seen As A Hypocrite

Another reason for RAWA’s lack of popularity has also to do with the bill’s chief architect Sheldon Adelson being seen as only really interested in protecting his land-based casino empire from online competition, rather than protecting society from the dangers of gambling. After all, Adelson has grown rich from gambling, and this contradiction has not been lost on his many detractors, including influential former Republican congressman Ron Paul, who has openly criticized any attempts to introduce a federal ban on online poker. As he wrote in his weekly column at ronpaulinstitute.org, last November:

“It is an open secret, at least inside the Beltway, that this legislation is being considered as a favor to billionaire casino owner, Sheldon Adelson. Mr. Adelson, who is perhaps best known for using his enormous wealth to advance a pro-war foreign policy, is now using his political influence to turn his online competitors into criminals.”

Senator Lindsey Graham A Technophobe

Just like land-based casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is seen as an antiquated dinosaur in his approach to online activities, so to is Senator Lindsey Graham who unsuccessfully introduced his own version of RAWA, known as S-2159, to the Senate last year. In early March, for instance, Graham said he was an email virgin and had never corresponded in such a way.

“I don’t email. No, you can have every email I’ve ever sent. I’ve never sent one. I don’t know what that makes me.”

In answer to the Senator’s question, that makes him a technophobe, which is really quite astounding coming from someone who professes to be an apparent expert on online gambling, and how it can apparently be used for online money laundering purposes and funding terrorism. Needless to say, something doesn’t smell quite right in the anti-online gambling camp, and this hopefully should be reflected in a lack of support at the upcoming RAWA hearing.